Jim Collins, Ph.D., known as “Redtail,” is a wisdom-keeper in the lineages of both the Lakota Sun Dance tradition and the Laika shamans of Peru. He is also an ecopsychologist, self-mastery coach, master gardener, sustainability activist and former psychotherapist whose extensive experience spans nearly four decades. Redtail has led numerous workshops and retreats for more than 25 years encompassing a variety of topics, including sustainable organic gardening, permaculture, seed saving, wilderness survival, epigenetic medicine, ecospirituality, self-mastery and nature awareness. In addition to his coaching practice, he is co-founder and former garden manager of the Community Teaching Garden at Shasta College in Redding, California; serves as a consultant to community garden and mini-farming projects throughout the region; and manages a quarter-acre intensive organic permaculture garden at his home in Redding where he and his life-partner Pamela have been producing most of their own food for the past decade and regularly contributing to local food banks.

2016 Convergence Workshop: Gardening:The Little-known Path of Effective Activism

This is a hands on workshop teaching the traditional seed preservation techniques of India. Seeds are preserved using ash and antimicrobial and insecticidal leaves in baskets sealed with clay and manure. This method preserves seeds without the use of modern products and is important for the post oil world.

Presented By: Narsanna Koppula

Saturday, September 17th | 2:00 – 3:00 PM |Mediterranean Garden

After more than 20 years of focused broad-acre, farm scale applied Permaculture there have been many successes with our design, also some failures and re-corrections. We may be one of the first generations in modern history to be starting farms from scratch, so a steep learning curve is to be expected. Don Tipping will share stories and anecdotal wisdom winnowed from the chaff pile of two decades of permaculture farming at Seven Seeds Farm & Siskiyou Seeds.

Presented By: Don Tipping

Don Tipping has been offering hands on, practical workshops at Seven Seeds Farm since 1997. We are a small, organic family farm in the Siskiyou Mountains of SW Oregon, situated at 2,000 feet elevation on a 7,000 tall forested mountain with rushing spring fed creeks flowing through the land and nestled among old growth forests. Here we produce fruits, vegetables, seeds, herbs, wool, eggs, and lamb. The farm has been designed to function as a self-contained, life regenerating organism with waste products being recycled and feeding other elements of the system. Lauded as one of the best examples of a small productive Biodynamic and Permaculture farms in the northwest by many, Seven Seeds helps to mentor new farmers through internships and workshops. We have produced certified organic vegetable, flower and herb seeds for over a dozen national scale seed companies. Seven Seeds has also been active in USDA Western SARE, Organic Seed Alliance and other seed initiatives to advance the development of open pollinated organic seeds. In 2009 we began Siskiyou Seeds, a bioregional organic seed company operated from the home farm.

Don helped to found the Siskiyou Sustainable Cooperative which manages a 300 share CSA, commercial seed growing, an equipment co-op and internship curriculum among 12 cooperating farms. He also co-founded the Family Farmers Seed Cooperative, a seed grower, marketing and distribution cooperative comprised of 10 western organic farms. Don helps people focus upon helping people build their skill sets in sustainable life skills such as permaculture, biodynamics, organic gardening, eco-forestry, seed saving and other traditional arts that help to build regenerative culture. He has co taught with a wide group of widely respected people in the both the seed & Permacukture movement including: Tom Ward, Larry Korn, Michael “Skeeter” Pilarski, Bill McDorman, Dennis Martinez, John Navazio, Frank Morton, Harald Hoven, Jude Hobbs, Becky Bee, Rowen White and more.

www.sevenseedsfarm.com
www.siskiyouseeds.com

2016 Convergence Workshop: What the Designers Manual Didn’t Tell You…